1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic connector terminal, and particularly relates to an electronic connector terminal produced by punching a thin metal plate in a desired shape followed by plating with Au.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic connector terminal is generally formed by punching an electrically conductive thin plate to a predetermined shape. Such an electronic connector terminal usually comprises planer parts defined by front and back faces of a punched out piece and lateral parts defined by a cut-out plane through punching of the thin plate. Generally the electronic connector terminal is categorized to two kinds of terminals; one is a terminal disposed such that the planer part of the thin plate includes a connection to the connection housing when inserted to a connector housing, and another is a terminal disposed such that the lateral part includes a connection to the connector housing when inserted to a connector housing. The terminal, which is configured to have the connection point on the lateral part, has advantages in which the terminal is easier to maintain contact pressure required to the terminal than the terminal configured to have connection point on the planer part and in which the terminal can be disposed in a narrow pitch.
Generally, an electronic connector terminal is applied with plating on surfaces of the terminal so as to prevent degradation of connecter performance due to oxidation under atmosphere of usage circumstance or electric contact mechanism while enhancing electrical conductivity. Conventionally, in the terminal configured to have the electronic connection on the lateral part, the electronic plating is provided on the entire surface of the terminal, and therefore, there is a drawback in which significant amounts of gold (Au) used for plating thereof are required so that the product cost thereof becomes high.
With respect to the above drawback, the terminal with plating only on the connection point of the lateral part has been proposed. For example, the method comprising the following steps has been proposed in Japanese Patent (Laid-Open) No. Showa 49-114796 and the steps are:    stacking a plurality of connector terminals; and    plating thereon such that un-necessary plating layers can not be deposited on planer parts of a fork-shaped spring.
The planer part may be oxidized during long terms usage and the connector performance thereof may be degraded even though the planer part is not subjected to the circumstance easy to be oxidized than the circumstance of the lateral part. With respect to this problem, a contact element with covered planer part with an insulation film has been proposed in Japanese Utility Model (Laid-Open) No. Heisei 5-90834. This contact element is formed by masking the part on which the insulator film is not deposited, and thereafter, dipping the contact in fluorine-system resin solution to form the insulation film thereon.
However, the above process requires a masking step in which the contact including the plating layer must be masked after Au plating of the contact portion followed by dipping in the fluorine-system resin solution thereby increasing product costs because additional production processes are required and process steps are increased while wasting time and elaboration as well as requirements for masking materials and the fluorine-system resin solution.
Therefore, a terminal which is produced easily and inexpensively by reducing amounts of Au necessary for plating without requiring additional production processes are required so far.